“All of these books have been made available for download on the Library’s website in keeping with the intent of their creators and publishers, which chose to publish these works under open access licenses to allow the broadest possible access and reuse. All books added to the collection go through a selection process whereby subject matter experts determine which works are in scope based on the Library’s Collections Policy Statements.” (About this Collection) More than 3700 titles are available in this growing collection that reflects the breadth and depth of this library’s holdings.
Archive for March, 2022
If We Had Permanent Daylight Savings Time, What Would Sunrises and Sunsets Look like?
Parts of the country would not see their latest sunrise until 9:30 in the morning, while many areas would have daylight longer in the winter evenings. Look at this visualization from The Washington Post to see what sections of the country would be impacted the most.
What St Peter’s University Has Done for Jersey City
Please read this piece that prominently features NJCU President Sue Henderson and her insightful remarks on what St Peter’s NCAA appearances mean for higher education in Jersey City and the city in general.
Historically Black Colleges’ Digital Collections
A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University “… includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, alumni letters, memorabilia, and programs from campus events.” Many of the HBCUs have some of their treasures here from Alabama State University to Virginia State University.
American Prison Newspapers
Prison newspapers have been around for the past two hundred years. This open access site – American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside – contains more than 1500 issues from over 40 titles that have been culled from various university libraries. Problems addressed run the gamut from the prohibitive cost of college courses in prison to anxiety and the coronavirus. This is an ongoing project so updates will be forthcoming.
Brooklyn Guidebooks
Before Brooklyn became part of New York City, it had been incorporated as a separate municipalit,, and as such, had guidebooks centered on it. In the 1800s, there was a series of works that described both New York City and Brooklyn – New-York as it is: containing a general description of the City of New-York….& of the City of Brooklyn…..[for space purposes, I have left much of the title out]. Extant copies date from 1833 to 1840, and reflect the development of Brooklyn. The 1833 edition of this guide lists Brooklyn as a village with a population of 12,403 as of 1830 (p.21); the 1835 version records the fact that Brooklyn is now a city (p.207), having been designated as such in 1834 and with a population of about 15,000. (p.208) The entry goes on to point out that this new city ”…is a favourite residence of many doing business in New-York.”
Dozens of maps of Brooklyn, dating back to 1770, can be found here; more can be found here as well.
U.K. Women’s Rights Collection
This trove of material, hosted by the London School of Economics, traces the development of the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. “This collection contains suffrage newspapers, journals, pamphlets, leaflets and annual reports of different suffrage groups covering the women’s suffrage campaign from the late 19th century to 1928 when women were granted equal voting rights with men.”
Watch the Confirmation Hearings of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
The hearings are on C-SPAN where you can watch them live or review the videos at a later date (C-Span permanently retains all its videos, now numbering in excess of 274,000 hours). An unofficial transcipt is also availabe as is the feature “Points of Interest”.
Online Biographies of Suffragists
Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States,edited by Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar, is an ambitious project that brings together biographies of thousands of suffragists. There are three main groups that form the foci of this work: Black women suffragists; Militant suffragists associated with the National Woman’s Party; and Mainstream suffragists affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Many of these essays are crowd-sourced, being authored by students and independent historians as well as by established writers. The sketches all are accompanied by bibliographies that have certain linked items in them.
NASA Oral Histories Projects
There are a number of oral history programs covering the vast domain of NASA. These interviews, well over 1,000 and counting, include astronauts, administrators, even lawyers who were employed by the programs. Some individuals are the subject of more than one interview; most individuals also have a biographical link. The informal tone of the questions, and their responses, lends an air of authenticity to these documents.
Additional Information on Judge Jackson, Nominee to the Supreme Court
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Selected Primary Material acts as a guide to the voluminous amount of information demanded from Judge Jackson by the Committee on the Judiciary. Active links take you to hearings and background material submitted for her various judgeship nominations along with selected briefs, law review articles, articles, and letters.
The Nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court reviews her opinions on selected decisions; here is the Law Library of Congress research guide on her.
Online Primary Sources: Ireland
The Dublin Castle Collection is “The former reference library of the Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle, Ireland. Books, maps, periodicals, cartoons, manuscripts, prints and pamphlets dating from the late 16th to the early 20th century. Subject matter relates mainly to the political administration of Ireland.” It also contains numerous issues of the Dublin Gazette. For those interested in Irish history, these 9,000+ documents are well worth exploring.
For additional entries in this blog on Ireland, please come here.
Wearing of the Blue for St Patrick’s Day?
Actually, blue was the color originally associated with St Patrick. In fact, the Statues and Ordinances of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick (1831 edition) mandate the attire for this group include “sky-blue sattin” and “sky-blue ribband”. If you look at the flag of the President of Ireland, you will see that is consists of a harp and a field of blue:
| So why the change? As with many topics dealing with St Patrick, there are multiple answers,and which one is the most reliable is debatable. Here is an unoffical Irish flag flown on merchant vessels; it dates back to the 18th century at least, and as you caan see, there is a lot of green in the background. |
Another explanation is that when King Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland in 1541, he designed the first coat of arms that you see above. And as the years of protest and violence went on, the Irish rejected the blue for the green.
And yet another version has the United Irishmen in the 1790s adopting green as their color. And during this same time period, another narrative is that the Irish wore green to counter the red uniforms of the British.
Here are some readings: Should We Be Wearing Blue on St. Patrick’s Day?; St. Patrick’s Day Traditions ; and 5 St. Patrick’s Day Symbols and What They Mean.
Additional Books On the History and Culture of Ukraine Now Freely Available Online
These academic monographs are from prestigious presses.
Watch Ukrainian President Zelensky Address Congress Live
It will happen at 9am today. You can watch it here courtesy of C-SPAN.
American Historical Association’s Resources on Ukraine and Russia
In light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the AHA is offering free access to its many articles that address the background of the current war; they run the gamut from the Ukraine Crisis of 2014/14 to selected primary sources and teaching materials. It also hosted a video discussion entitled Russia and Ukraine: History Behind the Headlines.
Research Centers on Ukraine
Here are three major centers for study on Ukraine: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies along with its Did You Know? CIUS Answers video series that concentrates on the invasion, and its journal – East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies;
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and its section on Russia’s War on Ukraine, and its journal – Harvard Ukrainian Studies; and
[London] Ukrainian Institute and its publication – Ukraine: 30 Years Young – an ongoing project.
All these sites also offer guidance if you wish to assist in the relief efforts.
Suffrage Materials at the Library of Congress
The National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection houses over 1,900 documents from this organization. “The collection consists of a variety of materials including newspapers, books, pamphlets, memorials, scrapbooks, and proceedings from the meetings of various women’s organizations that document the suffrage fight.” There are multiple access points allowing for a focused retrieval of relevant items.
A broader search across the numerous collections at LOC reveal further resources scattered among its treasures: Women’s Suffrage in Sheet Music, Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, and Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party, among others available.
Women in the Workplace
Women in the Workplace 2021is the latest annual survey issued by McKinsey & Company is the largest survey on women in corporate America. The data was collected “…from 423 participating organizations employing 12 million people, surveyed more than 65,000 employees, and conducted interviews with women of diverse identities, including women of color.”
The results speak for themselves – women are still underrepresented and the pandemic has added another level of stress to women’s lives.
A trove of statistical data from the Bureau of Labor statistics sheds further light on the participation of women in the labor force. This 2022 report – Demographic Changes in Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic – is certainly worth perusing as is this 2020 study – How Women and Aging Affect Trends in Labor Force Growth.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 